The Future Of Travel Experience: A View from Mega-investor Andreessen Horowitz – PhocusWire

Excerpt from PhocusWire

In the Future of Travel Experience, Jeffrey Katz, CEO of Journera and founding CEO of Orbitz, goes one-to-one with fellow leaders to get their insights on how advanced technology and changing consumer expectations will shape the future of the industry.

Q: When you look at the travel industry overall, how do you see the opportunity for change?

There are a number of monster markets that have been somewhat immune to disruption.

Healthcare has been slow. Education has been slow. I actually think travel is one that has been pretty hospitable to entrepreneurs and innovation.

So, with the wind at your back in a market like this, I think there’s a ton of opportunity for companies to come in and carve out big niches.

Q: Andreessen Horowitz has made some significant investments in the travel and mobility sectors, like Lyft, Airbnb and TripActions. What excites you about what’s happening in travel today?

There’s a huge macro shift from analog to digital that’s happening in multiple verticals. It’s clearly been happening in travel.

The first movers were largely distribution vehicles, like Expedia, Priceline and Booking.com.

Today, you’re seeing the next-gen coming, where smaller apparent markets are getting big enough on digital to support large businesses.

We’re seeing this in the alternative accommodations space, the corporate travel space and many others that are being reimagined in a digital and mobile format.

This explosion in entrepreneurial focus on travel segments is occurring because they are so big that they present entrepreneurs and investors with unique opportunity.